Protests decry white supremacist rally

Protesters decrying hatred and racism have converged around the US, saying they felt compelled to counteract the white supremacist rally that spiralled into deadly violence in Virginia.

The gatherings spanned from a planned march to President Donald Trump's home in New York to a candlelight vigil in Florida.

In Seattle, police made arrests and confiscated weapons as Trump supporters and counter-protesters converged downtown.

Some focused on showing support for the people whom white supremacists' condemn.

Other demonstrations were pushing for the removal of Confederate monuments, the issue that initially prompted white nationalists to gather in anger at the weekend in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Still other gatherings aimed to denounce fascism and a presidential administration that organisers feel has let white supremacists feel empowered.

"People need to wake up, recognise that and resist it as fearlessly as it needs to be done," said Carl Dix, a leader of the Refuse Fascism group organising demonstrations in New York, San Francisco and other cities.

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"This can't be allowed to fester and to grow because we've seen what happened in the past when that was allowed."

Dix spoke by phone from Charlottesville on Sunday afternoon.

He had gone there to witness and deplore the white nationalist rally on a Saturday that descended into bloodshed.

Charlottesville descended into violence on Saturday after neo-Nazis, skinheads, Ku Klux Klan members and other white nationalists gathered to "take America back" and oppose plans to remove a Confederate statue in the Virginia town, and hundreds of other people came to protest the rally.

A car rammed into a peaceful crowd of anti-white-nationalist protesters, killing a woman and dozens of people were injured.